Drop Dead
by L.A.D. CORP. iNC
Summary: Some people were just so stubborn, they'd die before admitting they were wrong. Naruto xover.


A/N: Okay, just kind of felt like flooding the account with one-shots, it's a nice day, I think... What I mean by that is that I'm working on uploading a few more... Um... This one is kind of...cheesy and slightly OOC, for that I apologize. Dedicated to **regretfully-yours-Cassy-chan** because I came up with this due to one of her earlier reviews on my chapter story, As the Days Float By, Like Clouds in the Sky. Originally this was a multi-chaptered ficcie but I think it lagged if I stretched it to that point, so it's now...this. Sorry if it falls short. Please read, review, and enjoy what you can.

L

**Drop Dead**

She let out a strangled sob and pressed her hands tightly to the side of her head, covering her ears as best as she could. She shook violently and she curled up even more into herself. Her knees fit right under her chin and against her chest but she tried to make herself ever smaller. Each time the angry voice spoke, she gave a frightened shake of her head, eyes clenched, the glossy raven locks that tumbled down her shoulders flying from side to side. She couldn't take this much longer.

"Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."

With obvious reluctance and difficulty, she forced herself to crack open her eyes and blink wide, blue-gray orbs timidly up at her companion. He sat next to her and had wrapped a protective arm around her, glaring vehemently around the tree that was hiding them.

The two of them had been caught in a stalemate. They knew not the position of their attacker, but luckily he didn't know where they were either. The dense forest captured their voices and cast mocking echoes, making it impossible to decipher the source.

"Come out Kagome, you know you can't hide from me."

Yeah, well, she could sure as hell try.

"Are you scared? You were always a weak fool."

Shut up. Just shut _up_.

"I'm not weak. I'm not weak…"

Derisive laughter closed in on Kagome from all sides and she shrank into the embrace. He instinctively tightened his hold around the petite woman and pulled her into his chest.

"Ignore it. He's just trying to get to you…"

"He's doing a mighty fine job of it."

Even in her anxiety and fear, her doubt and her crumbling confidence, Kagome managed an infuriated snort. Her raging emotions were getting harder and harder to sort through; she had no idea what was dominating what anymore as her resolve rose from the ashes of her rage.

"Just hand over the jewel Kagome! I promise I'll make it quick; I'll even let your friend leave, if he doesn't give me anymore trouble, that is."

Her eyes, blue flames, flashed dangerously.

"Don't listen to him Kagome, like he could do anything…"

She tilted her head to the side, to stare at the profile of his face. He seemed pale, but that was how he always looked, despite the fact he lived in the desert. The sun's rays weaved into his fiery red hair and she was struck by how much it reminded her of the color of blood. Though he was not facing her, she knew that his narrowed eyes were a sparkling sea green.

"Gaara… We can't do this anymore."

He didn't turn to her, still glaring viciously at random spots around their tree.

"If you are even thinking about letting that man take the jewel and your life, I'd rather kill you myself."

She bit her lip.

"We don't know where he is; at any given moment, he could attack."

"He won't; he'd give his position away."

"If I reveal myself, he'll come out; you would have a clear shot—"

"You will stay where you are."

Kagome gave him a mutinous scowl.

"I will not let you get hurt because of me, Gaara. What about your siblings?! Your village?!"

_I will not let another person that cares about me die because of me again_.

"They love you! They care about you just as much as you do them! I will not let you become a nameless body to them for dying over me!"

_I simply won't allow it_.

"Love is meaningless if it is not heartfelt."

"…you don't mean that. You want it too much."

The young miko shrank against their tree as a voice pierced their conversation.

"Keh. Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Gaara grabbed the young miko's hand with lightning-fast agility the second he felt her try to move.

"Let me _go_!"

"I saved you, remember?! Your life belongs to _me_!"

The grip hurt but Kagome continued tugging nonetheless, ignoring the tears that stung at the corner of her eyes. She managed to break free somehow and slapped the redhead's hand away.

"Kagome!"

But she had scrambled to her feet with an arrow in hand and rushed out from behind their tree. The effect was instantaneous. A red shape immediately shot out of the branches from a tree directly opposite them, heading with unnatural speed towards her. Kagome didn't even flinch, glaring at the figure head on.

Gaara watched in a mixture of fascination and horror. One second the hanyou and Kagome had been separated by a good few yards; next second his entire arm was plunged through her chest.

Inuyasha gaped unabashedly down at the blood-soaked appendage. He didn't believe this. It couldn't be real, couldn't be happening. As if to prove to himself that he could not have just inflicted such a wound on Kagome so…_easily_, he gave his claws an experimental flex. He slowly glanced down at the arrow she held before looking back up at Kagome with wide, golden eyes. Why didn't she—? He had been so sure that she would have purified him; fought back at the very least… She was crying.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He meant to force her to kill him; he had to see Kikyo again. The hanyou didn't dare pull his arm back out. The duty to protect the jewel should have driven Kagome to defend herself; she was not supposed to let him hurt her!

"What did you think you were—?!"

Kagome gasped for air, the pain and burning overwhelming her senses. She couldn't do it. She was so angry…so…_disappointed_ in him, hurt, betrayed… Yet she couldn't do it, even when she had been so convinced she could. She could never kill her friend.

After what felt like an eternity of silent staring had passed, Gaara felt everything settle in and hurried to Kagome's side, summoning sand from his surroundings and wrapping it decisively around Inuyasha. What had Kagome been thinking?! She obviously wouldn't be able to hurt him; that was just the way she was.

Inuyasha didn't know what to say. There was nothing _to_ say. He stared beseechingly into the watery blue-gray eyes. He never wanted this. Ever. She just _had_ to understand that. He had only wanted to leave all this behind. The sand that was closing in on him didn't matter if she could only realize… The grains completely engulfed him and silently swallowed, melting back into the earth as if it had by no means risen to start with.

"Kagome…!"

Gaara managed to catch her before she hit the ground though he had no idea what to do about the gaping hole in her chest. Her labored breathing bothered him and the continual flow of blood was just as disconcerting.

"I'm not letting you die. _You_. _Will_. _Not_. _Die_."

Kagome gave him a shaky smirk.

"Would you bet your life on it?"

He frowned darkly and answered without missing a beat.

"Yes."

Had she not choked she would have laughed properly.

"I have half a mind to die just to spite you."

"You wouldn't dare."

Her eyes were extraordinarily bright for someone who looked as pale as she did at the moment.

"Why not?"

"You have unfinished business."

"…like?"

"The jewel…your family…"

"If you pull that line about 'me' like in those cheesy movies, I'll know you're lying."

Gaara remained silent, staring blankly at her rather crooked grin.

"Why's that?"

"Oh come on, love is a meaningless emotion, isn't it?"

"…"

She thought he wouldn't say anything until, so softly she nearly missed it, he whispered huskily into their surroundings…

"You don't believe that."

Kagome turned away, staring up at a cloud that floated overhead right then.

"You're the one who said it, back then…"

He glared, though it did not look nearly as intimidating with the cold sweat collecting on his brow; fear, foreign though it was, grasped at him with unrelenting claws.

"You don't mean that," he repeated firmly.

"…don't I?"

But he knew she didn't mean what she said. When her eyes closed, he still knew that she didn't because no matter how hard he squeezed her shoulders, those eyes refused to snap open. There was nothing that Kagome Higurashi could say to prove she had lost faith in love and knowing her, she wouldn't be able to look him in the face until she could find that argument. She had her pride, after all.

Gaara picked the body up soundlessly, shifted it slightly into a more comfortable position in his arms, and trekked away from the clearing, back towards Sunagakure. She wasn't dead; stupid girl wore herself out, that's all.

He imagined that this was the part where he would cry if he was in a movie or a drama or some story. He never was good at doing what was expected of him. Had he cried, however, he would not have realized it. It had been too long since he had last tasted his tears. At this point, he expected if they were to pass his lips, nothing would register but the bitterness he felt.

A soft breeze stirred, brushing the leaves and kissing his face. Gaara tilted his head towards the sky and noticed a single white butterfly flutter across his vision.

_You were right, Gaara…_

He smirked wistfully.

'I know.'


End file.
